Anthony Mayse's trip to a grotto in North Carolina turned from excitement from heartbreak when the nasty Saint Nick told him: "Lay off the fast food and French fries" Anthony Mayse's trip to a high street grotto turned from excitement from heartbreak when the mean Saint Nick told him: "Lay off the hamburgers and French fries". The youngster said he tore up his photo with Father Christmas afterwards and spent the rest of the day in tears.

Starting any type of business is risky. It has tons of challenges and difficulties. But you can do it. It’s just a matter of working hard and taking the right steps.

In this post, you will learn some helpful tips that will make it easier for you to start your own trucking business.

How to Start a Trucking Business
Make Sure You’re In Compliance

If you don’t want to get into trouble, you need to make sure you’re in compliance with state and federal laws. This is extremely important. You don’t want to run afoul of the law after you’ve started your business.

The key is to make sure you’re fully aware of how the law impacts your business. First, you want to make sure you obtain the appropriate licenses and permits for your business. The type of permits and licenses you need will depend upon the type of transportation business you’re starting.

We always hope that nothing bad will happen when we’re starting a business, right? Nobody wants to think about the potential risks they’re taking. You also want to make sure you buy the right type of insurance. Not only that, you want to make sure you’re buying enough insurance. It’s best to speak with an insurance agent who can let you know what type of insurance would work best for your new trucking business.

Finally, you need to make sure you form the right legal business structure. There are several ways you can register your business.

Here are some of the most common types:

Sole proprietorship

Limited-liability company (LLC)

Corporation

There are pros and cons to each type of business formation. There are several ways to find out what type of business structure you should use, but the best way to find out for sure is to speak with an attorney and tax professional. Ensuring that you’re informed on the legalities of starting your business will protect you from any potential legal issues.

Get A Truck

It’s pretty hard to start a trucking business if you don’t have a truck, right? However, it’s not as easy as just going out and buying a commercial truck. You need to make sure you do it the right way.

The last thing you want is to be stuck with a truck that doesn’t fit your business. Also, you don’t want to get a truck that just breaks down on you when you’re ready to do your first run.

Here are some helpful tips:

Choose the right type of truck for your business. There are many different types to choose from. Make sure you get the truck that best fits the type of trucking you will do.

Don’t look only in one place to find your truck. Check multiple sources. Compare pricing so that you don’t overspend.

Don’t settle for the first price. You shouldn’t be afraid to negotiate. If the seller wants to make money, they will be willing to haggle.

Have the vehicle inspected. It might be worth it to pay a mechanic to check out the truck before you purchase it. This can save you a huge headache later on.

Work out a payment plan that works for you. If the seller is making demands that you know you can’t meet, don’t be afraid to walk away. You can always find a better deal.

Getting the right truck will take some work. But if you do your due diligence, you can find the truck your company needs without risking major hassles later on.

Figure Out Your Niche

When it comes to branding and building a business, it’s best to find a niche that you can dominate. Yes, I know it’s going to be tempting to become a “jack of all trades.” But don’t give in to that temptation!

It probably seems like you’re giving up customers if you refrain from marketing to everyone, doesn’t it? But it’s not true. When you embrace a particular niche, you’re positioning yourself as the authority in that niche. You’re eliminating tons of competition by specializing in one type of transportation service.

There are several different niches that your business can occupy. These include:

You may already know this, but there’s more to starting a trucking business than just delivering your load. Being a business owner means having to wear many different hats. You have to take care of every aspect of running your business until you’re able to hire people to handle it for you.

Marketing is one of the most important functions you will need to perform. Otherwise, nobody will know about your business. It’s a little hard to get customers if you’re not reaching out to them, right?

If you’re going to get customers, you need to develop a marketing plan. You need an effective way to make sure your potential clients know about you.

Here are some tips that can help:

Use social media to reach out to potential clients.

Start a direct mail campaign.

Create a website. Prospects will want to know where to find you online .

Build an email list.

An effective marketing plan will enable you to reach out to potential customers and get jobs.

Conclusion

Starting any type of business is rough. Building a trucking business is no different. You need to work hard and make a plan. However, if you persevere, you can grow a thriving trucking business. Use the tips given in this article and you will see how much easier it will be to get your business off the ground.

Sometime near the end of 2020, legions of commuters, minutemen, and tourists will have the luxury of catching trains out of New York's next great public space: Moynihan Station , currently under construction in an airy Beaux-Arts post office on Ninth Avenue. Until then, alas, riders will have to make do with the minimum security prison that is Penn Station , a windowless, police-filled holding pen where I recently watched a dapper gent sleep standing up while using an Xcelerator hand dryer.

The menu experts agree that vegetables get short shrift when forced to masquerade as meat and cheese
The menu experts agree that vegetables get short shrift when forced to masquerade as meat and cheese

Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is going completely green. The tech giant recently announced that it plans to pay for enough green energy sources to power all of its data centers and offices by this time next year.

It’s facilities will still be hooked up to their regular power grids. So there’s not necessarily a way to check and see whether Google’s energy is coming from renewable sources. But the company says that it will purchase enough renewable energy credits cover all of the energy it uses.

At first glance, you might think this move is mostly about the environmental impact of green energy use. Google is a big company that uses a lot of energy. So going green can have a definite impact on the environment. And of course, getting some positive attention for the move wouldn’t hurt either.

Is it Time to Get Ahead on the Financial Benefits of Renewable Energy?

But green energy prices have actually gone down in recent years. So the move also may impact Google with some financial benefits of renewable energy. Though there aren’t currently any mandates in place that would force Google into using only renewable energy, there might one day be some rules or stronger financial reasons to do so. So getting started now when prices are low makes a lot of sense for companies that can afford it.